[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 44 (Thursday, April 18, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H1470-H1472]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IN MEMORY OF SCOTT BILLINGSLEY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to deliver a tribute to M. 
Scott Billingsley, legislative director for Colorado's Sixth 
Congressional District from December 15, 2001, to March 25, the day of 
his death.
  First and foremost, I am honored today to share with you Scott's 
dedication to his career, his fellow man and his country. Mr. Speaker, 
my staff and I were given the great privilege of working with Scott for 
the last few months of his life. When Scott became my legislative 
director this past December, he instantly gained my respect and, more 
importantly, generated a sense of enthusiasm in his office which 
empowered my staff to reach their personal best and to strive to work 
toward perfection. Scott's infectious personality and poise drew people 
close to him. We instantly enjoyed getting to know him and were eager 
to learn from him.
  Scott possessed a rare gift that allowed him to do his job 
thoroughly, in a way that nurtured the work ethic of his peers while at 
the same time enabled him to act as a mentor.
  Mr. Speaker, we were blessed to have Scott in our lives. Scott will 
always be remembered as a person who lived life to the fullest, with a 
passion for knowledge and a sincere desire to make a difference in the 
lives of those around him and the people of Colorado's Sixth 
Congressional District.
  The news of his sudden death saddened all of us beyond words. His 
presence is irreplaceable, his character exceptional.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit Scott's eulogy delivered by both 
his father and fiancee for the Congressional Record.
  It is important to let history know that Mr. Billingsley was a man 
who dedicated his life to improve the livelihood of his fellow citizens 
and America.
  In closing, Mr. Speaker, I would like to quote a verse from the 
Bible. In the short time we were blessed with Scott in our lives, we 
believe he would say these words to help ease the hearts of all those 
who knew and loved him. The scripture is from Numbers 6:24-26:
  ``The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine 
down upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his 
countenance upon thee and give thee peace.''
  While losing Scott was tragic, his spirit remains with all of us.

          Eulogy by Scott's Father, Dr. Michael L. Billingsley


       (march 30, 2002, grace episcopal church, colorado springs)

       To the Family and Friends of Michael Scott Billingsley:
       This is the most difficult thing that a father ever has to 
     do, but I must say a few words about our son. Most of you 
     have known and loved Scott for some or all of his 32 years, 
     and I know you are devastated by this loss. His mother and I, 
     his sister, and our family are crushed beyond words, and I 
     don't know if we will ever completely recover from this. 
     Scott and Rebecca have always been our life and our joy. I 
     have no words to express the pain his passing has caused.
       We are comforted, however, by our firm belief, that only 
     Scott's physical presence is gone. His spirit is everlasting, 
     and is bound up in than mysterious force, that binds us all 
     together, the Holy Spirit of God.
       I will let others recount Scott's accomplishments and 
     attributes. We all know that he achieved much in his short 
     time with us. He was a gifted and talented young man, and 
     contributed a great deal to the lives of all who knew him 
     well.
       I would like to focus for a moment on his spirit, the 
     enduring essence of his being. Scott's spirit is fiercely 
     independent. From the beginning, he asserted his uniquely 
     individual style, never egotistical, but always assertive, 
     and firm in his convictions. From his earliest use of words 
     and phrases, Scott was an able debater and advocate. When 
     Rebecca was only 2 years old, and Scott 5, she refused to 
     talk, though able, because she had only to point at something 
     she wanted, and Scott would instantly become her legal 
     counsel, explaining in full sentences what Rebecca really 
     meant to say. I don't remember a time, when he was at a loss 
     for words. Blessed with a keen intellect, and once convinced 
     of the merits of his position, he was a formidable partisan 
     for his issue. His assertiveness was, more often than not, 
     balanced with sincere sense of fairness, and respect for his 
     opponent. His friends will tell you that he was always up to 
     a debate on nearly any issue, and was even occasionally 
     willing to consider other reasonable and well thought out 
     points of view; that is, if he couldn't readily destroy their 
     argument.
       Scott's is a loyal spirit. His bonding to kindred souls, 
     regardless of differences of opinion, was remarkable. Some of 
     his best friends were often his polar opposites on world and 
     political views. His spirit was able to transcend those 
     differences and inspire comradeship in many of the ``loyal 
     opposition,'' as he might describe them. Finding and bonding 
     with the essential goodness in others was one of his great 
     strengths. Often through humor and wit, Scott could bridge 
     strong differences in opinion and diffuse anger and 
     confrontation. Scott's sense of humor was treasured by our 
     family. He was always able to bring laughter to even the most 
     contentious family matters. As many of you know, he could 
     incite hysterical laughter in his sister with a mere gesture 
     or an off-hand remark.
       The real center of Scott's spirit is love. A great deal of 
     this attribute certainly came from the unending love and 
     nurturing of his mother, his wonderful relationship with his 
     sister, his grandparents, his aunts and uncles, and his 
     cousins. He was fortunate to have many long-lasting close 
     friendships from high school, college, law school, and from 
     his work experiences in Washington. My personal relationship 
     with him was almost perfect. We agreed on almost every 
     philosophical principal. Our last game, a week ago, was a 
     tie. We didn't even have a

[[Page H1471]]

     playoff. All of these life experiences helped develop in 
     Scott a strong sense of compassion and justice. There is 
     more, however, that came from Scott himself. In the past few 
     years, he has developed a closer relationship with God, and 
     had been at last, able to make many life shaping decisions. 
     The most important decision was to marry Katie, his soul-
     mate, to whom he had dedicated his life. She brought him 
     great joy, laughter, and fulfillment. His mother and I know 
     that since meeting Katie, he had more direction and 
     contentment than ever before. After a recent reunion with 
     Scott, Rebecca remarked that she had never seen so much 
     happiness and joy in her brother's life. Our hearts weep for 
     you Katie, God bless you.
       Something that I had not been able to verbalize before, has 
     occurred to me over the past few days. It is the realization 
     that Scott is a rare and very special person, who has the 
     gift of connecting to people in a way that most of us can 
     only wonder at and admire. Scott is one of the glue people 
     that hold us together, who can transcend our differences and 
     make us feel part of the same whole. I have known a few other 
     extraordinary people like this, whose presence remains with 
     me, and we all have these feelings for members of our 
     families. But Scott had a special ability to connect with 
     even those of short acquaintance, to build and maintain 
     special ties. I believe that God was and is doing his work, 
     through Scott, and continues to use his spirit to connect us. 
     His mother, sister, Katie, and I have certainly felt his 
     continuing presence, as I am sure many of you have also. Let 
     Scott's life, and continuing presence, help us all understand 
     this binding of our spirits, the inescapable conclusion that 
     we are not alone, now and forever.
       We will miss your person so much, Scott, but we will always 
     be comforted knowing that your spirit lives. This is not the 
     end, but only the beginning. We know that you will always be 
     with us, by the grace of God, the Father, the Son, and the 
     Holy Spirit.
                                  ____


                  ``Scott's Faith'' by Katie McNerney


       (march 30, 2002, grace episcopal church, colorado springs)

       I look out today to a group of people, most of whom have 
     known Scott far longer than me. During the last 10 years in 
     DC, he was physically quite far away, although I know he did 
     a great job of staying in touch by phone and e-mail and 
     occasional visits. I thought it would be helpful to take some 
     time to share with you some of the more recent aspects of 
     Scott's life. After 3\1/2\ years of spending nearly every day 
     with him, I was blessed to witness the increasing growth of 
     this remarkable man I called my fiance, best friend and soul 
     mate. I'd like to start talking about Scott by focusing on an 
     areas of his life that not many people knew about. His faith. 
     When we first met, Scott and I were at about the same place 
     in our spiritual lives. Scott's parents, grandparents, and 
     other family and friends clearly influenced his strong value 
     system and his faith. Similarly I was raised in a 
     conservative Christian family, but neither of us felt very 
     comfortable using Jesus' name in conversation and we were 
     often wary of those who did. However, in the last few years, 
     Scott and I together shared a number of experiences that 
     introduced us to a new faith and began a relationship with 
     Jesus that strengthened over time.
       One of those experiences involved a routine surgery two 
     years ago. After an adverse reaction to anesthesia, Scott's 
     heart stopped and he had to be resuscitated, three times. 
     When the doctor came into the waiting room and told me the 
     news, my shock and fear quickly turned to relief and 
     gratitude because Scott was going to be okay. And he was 
     going to be okay. Scott left the ICU with a new perspective 
     on life. And it's not like what you see in the movies when 
     people all of the sudden start giving away their worldly 
     possessions or vow to find the cure for cancer. Instead, 
     Scott started focusing internally on how he could become a 
     better person. And as you already know he was starting from 
     an excellent foundation. But he knew there was something 
     missing in his life.
       We began to pray together, sometimes in thanksgiving for 
     having found each other, our soul mates, and sometimes out of 
     pain for friends who we lost or family tragedies or even 
     challenges at work. Scott started joining me for church 
     regularly and began to like the weekly practice. Of course, 
     the hours after mass were the times when Scott really loved 
     to debate the sermon with me. And, of course, he'd always 
     win. But I could hear the passion in his voice and see the 
     changes he was making in his life. Over time, this was one of 
     the many ways that Scott and I fell in love. We were putting 
     Christ at the center of our relationship and, if you can 
     imagine a triangle with Jesus at the top, and Scott and me at 
     the other angles, the closer we each moved to Jesus, the 
     closer we moved to each other. Scott loved that image, and he 
     became increasingly committed to making sure he was growing 
     spiritually individually and together with me. Last fall, 
     Scott began meeting with a good friend on Capitol Hill for 
     regular Bible studies. Scott and I also enrolled in the Alpha 
     Course, a course on Christianity many churches offer for new 
     Christians or ones that need some brushing up. For those of 
     you who knew Scott, he mastered the art of arriving 
     fashionably late to most things, but to the Alpha Course he 
     was on time, every week. Even in the midst of some of the 
     busiest months at his job, he would leave work right at 6:30, 
     pick me up, and we would drive over to the Falls Church 
     together.
       Last Thursday, Scott asked me to meet him for lunch, 
     something we didn't often have a chance to do during the work 
     week. He wanted to attend a forum by the Faith and Politics 
     Institute. Heather Mercer, the young woman who was held in 
     captivity by the Taliban for 90 days last fall, was there to 
     address a small group of Congressmen and aides. I got the 
     invitation at 12 noon and by 12:30, Scott and I were in the 
     Longworth Building listening in awe as Heather recounted 
     the story of her heroic and faith-filled mission. At one 
     point, when Heather was describing that she loved the Lord 
     so much that she was willing to give her life, Scott 
     reached out and took my hand in his. His eyes welled with 
     tears, as did mine, and I knew then that Scott had truly 
     accepted Jesus as his savior. I was blessed to have 
     witnessed Scott's spiritual growth and his family and I 
     are at peace knowing that he is now with his everlasting 
     father in heaven.
       On Tuesday night, more than 40 people back in DC gathered 
     to pay tribute to Scott and shared remarkable stories. A 
     recruiting theme was Scott's unwavering passion for 
     everything he did. At work, his love for sports, and his love 
     for his family and friends. Scott approached his work with 
     more passion than anyone I knew. From the moment he arrived 
     to work until he left at night, oftentimes late into the 
     night, he was committed to making sure his government was 
     doing the right thing. Scott never questioned the value of 
     his work or contributions. As a lawyer, you'd think this 
     conviction would have made him want to be a prosecutor. But 
     Scott also had a deep passion for policy. Just last week, 
     Scott spent days working on the new immigration legislation 
     for his congressman. After just spending a day on the Hill 
     watching the legislation being made, I asked Scott about his 
     day. Of course, he quoted Bismarck that you should never 
     watch two things being made ``sausage and legislation''. 
     Despite his exhaustion, for the next three hours, he 
     explained to me all the intricate details of immigration 
     reform and why Congressman Tancredo was so right. For 
     ``fun'', we spent the next Saturday morning watching a video 
     on INS reform.
       Prior to joining Congressman Tancredo's office, Scott took 
     on one of his most important professional responsibilities, 
     to bring justice to the former Presidential Administration's 
     irresponsible handling of the pardons for the House 
     Government Reform Committee. The Final report, released just 
     weeks ago, is a clear reflection of Scott's diligence, 
     consistent commitment to the pursuit of justice, and his 
     dedication to his job and his coworkers. The report is one of 
     those tangible reminders that we have of Scott's intelligence 
     and his love of public policy. The Committee often required 
     long hours of wading through document after document and 
     typing up pages upon pages of footnotes. Scott never 
     complained and once, when a coworker was staying late with 
     the team, despite it being her boyfriend's birthday, Scott 
     called her later to apologize. It wasn't anyone's fault. It 
     was their job, but Scott felt compassion for his friend. 
     Scott was a wonderful teacher and always shared what he knew 
     about issues with people. I work in a mostly Democrat office, 
     so as the lone Republican, I relied on Scott for material. He 
     would often get e-mails from me two and three times a day 
     saying ``okay, how would you debate this issue and give me 
     some facts to back it up'' just so I could go back to my 
     office mates with all my vast knowledge. No matter what he 
     was doing or how busy he was, he would send two or three 
     articles within two minutes, and he would add a line at the 
     bottom of the e-mail saying ``Go get'em, sweetie.''
       Scott also loved to travel and learn about geography, 
     languages, different cultures, and new people. There were few 
     times, if any, where you didn't walk away from the conversion 
     with Scott and not have learned something. The one book on 
     his dresser that never collected dust was Scott's atlas. He 
     loved looking something up and reading about places all over 
     the world, places he hoped we would visit someday. This 
     Christmas, Scott bought me an atlas, so he could have an 
     extra copy at my place too! He would point out places he had 
     visited like Brazil, where he lived in Germany, and where he 
     visited in Italy for work in Dec. 2000. We joked with him 
     that the trip to Italy was a boondoggle, but Scott genuinely 
     felt that the trip's mission, to combat organized crime, was 
     of critical importance. He also had fun stories when he 
     returned, of being in the real town of Corleone. Isn't it 
     ironic, he told me, that they stamped out crime in most of 
     Sicily? In a weird way, Scott was saddened by this. The 
     Godfather was his favorite movie.
       Scott was so full of love, for his parents, Diane and Mike, 
     whom he adored and whom he could not wait to return to 
     Colorado to be near, for his sister Rebecca whom he so 
     admired for her intelligence, strength of character, and 
     sense of humor. Last night, I spent a few hours talking with 
     Scott's high school friends. Of course, they were recounting 
     stories that I had heard from Scott a hundred times before. I 
     am in awe of the friendships that Scott created--life long 
     friendships that Scott cultivated with great care. Steve, 
     Joe, Mark and Mike were just a few of his closest high school 
     friends. He had many others from college and law school, 
     Andy, Rob, Vinnie, Adam, and Dan. His friends from Colorado 
     and DC, Eric and Jen. If I've forgotten anyone, please 
     forgive me. You know how much Scott loved you all, and he is 
     honored here by your presence.

[[Page H1472]]

       Of all the things that Scott gave me, the one thing I think 
     will most sustain me is his sense of humor. We laughed hard. 
     He had an array of talents in impersonations. He perfectly 
     imitated the President's ``I'm the governor of Texas'' line. 
     With his jokes, Scott could bring tears to my eyes. Mike 
     Myers was one of his favorite comedians, and Scott did the 
     best impression of Fat Bastard (Can I say that in church?) 
     Please forgive me. He loved South Park, the Jerky Boys, and 
     did a mean impression of James Brown.
       Now, people pass away every minute of every day, but I find 
     it especially fitting, that we are gathered here on Holy 
     Saturday, the day the Christian faith weeps over the loss of 
     our Lord's only son. We weep with God, but like Jesus, Scott 
     is not sad. We are the ones that are sad. You see, Scott is 
     already with God. The moment his last breath left his body on 
     Monday, March 25th, was the moment that Jesus took his hand 
     and brought him home to a beautiful place, to a place where 
     Scott could be with his grandfather, uncle, Farfie, and Fritz 
     and, as his friend Vin pointed out, all the philosophers and 
     political theorists. In fact, he might not even be listening 
     to us now because he's too busy telling off Rousseau.
       Scott, we feel your presence with us, and we will love you 
     and keep you in our hearts forever.

                          ____________________